Anything can be aliased by char, unsigned char, std::byte (as well as signed char in C), and usually uint8_t == unsigned char, thus by extension any valid void pointer can be cast to u8*.
Thus void*+size is usually the right type if ones only care for the memory representation of an object (cstring functions like memcpy, etc.)
With (2) being a wrapper to (1) that compilers will almost always inline, avoiding monomorphization costs (and (2) can also accept rvalues as argument).
(1) could also take std::span<const u8>, but (void*, size) is the more common idiom, more convenient to use and to read , as it is unambiguous which overload it is.
Thus void*+size is usually the right type if ones only care for the memory representation of an object (cstring functions like memcpy, etc.)
Most likely one would have both overloads:
With (2) being a wrapper to (1) that compilers will almost always inline, avoiding monomorphization costs (and (2) can also accept rvalues as argument).(1) could also take std::span<const u8>, but (void*, size) is the more common idiom, more convenient to use and to read , as it is unambiguous which overload it is.